May 2005 Stories

Stephanie Vandehey: Banks Grad Wins USGA Fellowship

Stephanie Vandehey, a 2001 honors graduate of Banks High School, has won a two-year Fellowship in Leadership and Service with the United States Golf Association (USGA). The daughter of Joan and Nick Vandehey of Banks, she is one of only six graduating seniors in the nation selected this year to participate in this prestigious leadership program.

The USGA Fellowship in Leadership and Service gives recent college graduates the opportunity to gain management and other career skills in an intensive two-year introduction to the workforce. There’s also an in-depth mentoring component that helps fellows gain critical skills.

Vandehey, currently a graduating senior with a double major in rhetoric and media studies and history at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., will be responsible, along with five other first-year fellows and six second-year fellows, for managing the USGA Grants Initiative program. “The first year, I will be mentored by a second-year fellow and the next year, I will mentor the new hire. We have $5 million to award to programs that get young girls and children who are physically, economically or mentally disabled interested in playing golf.”

Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., each of the 12 fellows is assigned one of six regions around the country. “My southeast region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia and North and South Carolina. We’ll fund golf programs in those states with start-up money or maintenance funds until they can secure more permanent funding.”

Vandehey, who will travel 60 to 80 days a year, has also been assigned as the USGA representative at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Golf Championship in Eagle, Idaho. She’ll also be working at the U.S. Women’s Open Championship in Colorado.

In addition to hands-on management experience, the leadership program also involves intensive, one-day-a-week classroom training in finance, economics and business management, among other topics. “It’s like going to graduate school in business once a week.”

To secure one of these coveted fellowships, Vandehey submitted a two-page cover letter, resume, transcripts and letters of recommendation. The key to making her application rise above hundreds of others, she believes, is her varied background. “I raised two flocks of sheep and ran my own welding business. I did this while maintaining a heavy academic load at Willamette, running track and cross country, working as a resident advisor and being involved in many campus activities. My ability to multi-task and succeed in many fields is a testament to my willingness to make a positive impact in the world.”

While she’s an athlete, Vandehey admits she’s a novice golfer. “I play only recreationally and I have limited experience in the golf industry. I’ve never even played a full 18 holes. I did work in the club house at Killarney West Golf Course in Hillsboro the summer before I started at Willamette.”

She sees tremendous value in sports. “I have a great passion for sports and see what they can do for people of all ages. Golf is another sports venue that I’ve not yet fully explored, but one I’m confident will teach me many things just like other sports have. I think golf will teach me to be patient, to relax and to be in the moment.”

Vandehey begins her two-year golf fellowship almost immediately after graduating from Willamette University this month. “I have no idea what’s ahead, but I know it’s going to be the adventure of a lifetime.”

Chuck Bowles Is Willamette Track and Field

Retired coach’s passion for teaching helped form the foundation for the Bearcat’s running programs.

It’s a Friday afternoon in March, and Chuck Bowles is prowling the infield at Chuck Bowles Track during the Chuck Bowles Spring Break Classic, watching every move of every Willamette University track athlete, just like he did for 25 years as the Bearcats’ track coach.

“He’s a constant reminder to our coaching staff, a reminder of why we’re doing this,” said Matt McGuirk, the third head coach since Bowles retired at age 67 in 1990. “I’m looking out over the track that’s named for him, and I can’t think of anything more appropriate. Chuck Bowles IS Willamette track and field.”

Bowles, white-haired and 82, still would be on that track every day, monitoring progress and giving advice when asked, were it not for the deteriorating health of his wife of nearly 62 years, Barbara.

“Willamette is such a great place for young people, and the Willamette experience has been great for me and my family,” Bowles said. “I’m so proud of the development of our track program.

“He shows up at least twice a week in McGuirk’s office – on Tuesdays after he has delivered Meals on Wheels and on Thursdays during Barbara’s weekly hair appointment. He is busy other days volunteering at an outreach shelter and delivering food to several agencies.

Bowles is careful never to tread over the line, never telling McGuirk how to coach, but he asks pointed questions.

“That’s the thing I love most about Coach Bowles: he just tells it like it is,” McGuirk said. “There’s no dancing around an issue. He just says what’s up with this person, what’s wrong here, why doesn’t this person run faster? He’s to the point.”

Chuck and Barbara have sacrificed in ways that never will be quantified to make track at Willamette University a success.

“When I came back to Willamette, our track needed to be resurfaced and it was going to cost a lot of money,” said Kelly Sullivan, one of Bowles’ prize steeplechasers, when Sullivan became Willamette’s head coach in 1997. “People said I should get ahold of Coach Bowles, and I said, ‘He’s the last person on earth I want to donate another penny.’ I never had any facts, but I know there were a number of times that the school didn’t have funding for us to go to national meets and Coach paid for it out of his own pocket. When we built a new hammer throw facility, he sort of went behind my back and donated money. And if we had a fund-raising project and we raised maybe 30 percent, he and Barbara would cover the 70 percent. He’ll probably deny he ever did it.”

Sullivan now is the head coach of the women’s track and cross-country teams at Oregon State University.

Bowles coached at Willamette from 1966 through 1990 and won 11 Northwest Conference championships in men’s track, nine of them in 10 years from 1978 through 1987. He won seven straight conference cross country championships and won nine District 2 championships in 11 years, from 1976 through 1986. In 1979, he also became coach of the women’s team.

He coached the women 11 years, and 12 of the 25 school records still on the books were set by Bowles’ athletes; 14 of 24 men’s school records are from the Bowles era.

“Every day he walks in here you remember how hard he must have worked to do all the things he did when he had this program at the top,” McGuirk said. “He did everything from being athletic director to making lunches for all the kids.”

Indeed Bowles, in his initial years at Willamette, was head coach of track and cross country, athletic director, chairman of the department of physical education and was teaching a full course load.

“From the start I knew this was a great place, and as my passion grew, there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do,” Bowles remembers. “I was going to be here until they kicked me out.”

He won the conference championship in his first season, then only once more in the next 11 years.

“My major problem when I first got going was being department head, teaching, athletic director and coach,” he said. “I had trouble recruiting because there wasn’t any time left in the day. Once I got rid of some of that extra stuff, then we just soared.”

McGuirk was amazed when he joined Sullivan’s coaching staff and met Bowles.

“I don’t know the Spec Keene story, the story of all the other legendary Willamette people, but when a guy is running the athletic department and physical education department and doing all that he did, he is laying the foundation for us and for what really is a pretty easy job compared to what he had to go through,” McGuirk said. “I’m not saying it’s an easy job, but I can’t imagine what he had to do in his day.”

Whatever Bowles did, he wasn’t alone.

He had climbed Mount Hood as a student at the University of Portland and met Barbara, a student at Willamette, on the summit. They married in 1943 and she became a partner in all he accomplished.

He founded the Zena Road Run, sponsored summer all-comer track meets and fall all-comer cross country meets for kids, directed the Governor’s Trophy Run in its early days, always with Barbara dispersing snacks, collecting fees or handing out the ribbons that she also had made.

Asked what he sacrificed most during all those years, Bowles said: “Probably time with my wife. But she adjusted.”

The team became an extended family to Chuck, Barbara and their two children, who still live in Salem and call every day to check on them.

“Barbara would bake hundreds of cookies and take them to our track meets, and once there was a picture of the team in the Statesman with all these cookies on a steeplechase barrier after a meet,” Bowles said. “Then they’d all come out to the house and Barbara would cook. We had a big shot putter from Neahkahnie who’d say, ‘Boy, I love those team dinners.’

“Some of Sullivan’s fondest memories of running for Sullivan were the Sunday morning runs to the Bowles home in the hills west of the community of Lincoln.

“They lived way out Zena Road, and we’d meet at 7 a.m. at the Sparks Center for an eight-mile, 10-mile or 13-mile run, depending on the route we took,” Sullivan said. “We’d run in and take off our wet T-shirts and put them in the dryer, and Coach Bowles had old shirts from road races for us to put on. Barbara would cook eggs and meat and biscuits served with apple juice and orange juice, then we’d all lay on the floor until our stuff was dry.”

Eventually, Bowles would load the runners in a van and drive them back to campus.

“We were thinking about our sacrifice getting up at 6:55 a.m. to go for a run, but Barbara had been up cooking all morning, giving up what was supposedly their one day off from us.”

So it was alarming to Sullivan when he returned to Willamette to coach and found Bowles available to help, but virtually on the discard heap.

“I asked some of the kids about him and they said, ‘Oh, that kind-of-ornery old guy?’ And it ticked me off,” said Sullivan. “Look at the school records, the top-10 lists, the conference titles. It all came from him.”

Sullivan immediately took advantage, asking Bowles to share his vast experience by being a volunteer coach.

“It was instant, the first time the kids really met him, that they could sense his sincerity and his passion,” Sullivan said.

“They realized how much he cared. Then the second year he took a bunch of vagabonds, a mismatch of guys who couldn’t make the conference finals as individuals, and under Coach Bowles they won the conference 4 x 400 relay. The guys who were involved in that think Coach Bowles hung the moon. That was pretty cool.”

It was the last season Bowles could help coach, but as often as he could take time away from caring for Barbara, he would be at the track and in the track office.

“He’d be at every practice if he could. He still gets to every meet,” Sullivan said.

Meals on Wheels, daily walks and careful attention to his diet keeps Bowles healthy and productive.

“I need to do something that helps the community,” he said, in reference to his volunteer tasks. “It’s fun, and you need to be helping other people.”

And so, on a Friday morning during track season, he’s taking care of his responsibilities at home so he can get to Chuck Bowles Track to watch his beloved Bearcats.

“They keep naming these events after me – the Chuck Bowles Spring Break Classic, the Chuck Bowles Cross Country Invitational,” he said. “It gets kind of embarrassing.”

Sidebar – The Veteran

WHO: Chuck Bowles, 82, retired in 1990 after 25 years as track and cross-country coach at Willamette University

ON THE RUN: Delivers Meals on Wheels, volunteers at an outreach shelter, delivers food to several agencies and takes an hour walk each day with his giant yellow lab, Andy. Bowles says the walks are not too strenuous “because Andy makes too many pee stops.”

HIS PASSION: A close second after Barbara, his wife of nearly 62 years, is the Willamette track program, for which he laid the foundation.

HIS STRENGTH: “I’ve been a good teacher. Like Coach K at Duke, who says he’s a teacher who just happens to coach basketball, I was a teacher who just happened to coach track.”

ON THE RECORD: Bowles’ teams won11 Northwest Conference men’s track championships, including nine in10 years. More than half of Willamette’s school records still are held by athletes Bowles coached.

OF NOTE: Bowles still rides the team bus to meets around Oregon, in part, he said, “because it makes my wife happy. She’s afraid I’m going to fall asleep and drive off the road.”

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This story was written by Roy Gault for the Statesman Journal and appeared on March 25, 2005.

© 2005, The Statesman Journal. Reprinted with permission.

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Editor’s Note: Chuck Bowles died on December 30, 2005 at age 83. On March 5, 2006, many friends and family joined the Willamette community to remember Chuck Bowles, some driving many hours to be at the Memorial. The Charles Bowles Memorial Fund has been created for those wishing to contribute in his hame. Contact the Office of Annual Giving at (503) 370-6805 or (866) 444-2239, or email annualgiving@willamette.edu for more information.

Lisa Borok: Dream Job

Lisa Borok’s ‘96 dream job started with Indiana Jones and the “Temple of Doom.”

“From the time I was a little girl I wanted to work in a museum because of Indiana Jones,” says the woman who works as the Portland Art Museum’s exhibition coordinator.

When she came to Willamette, Borok (formerly known as Morgan) thought she might go into history, archeology or anthropology. But late registration proved a happy coincidence that led her to art. “I was one of the last people to register so many of the classes I wanted were closed. My advisor suggested I take photography in America and architecture in America. It was the beginning of my love affair with art. I fell in love with talking about art and using art to identify and analyze the world.”

She settled on an integrated art major – a blend of art history and studio art. “I never wanted to make my living as an artist. I was more interested in exhibitions and how they are put together.”

To gain practical experience, she worked as a gallery attendant at the former Hallie Ford Gallery. When it came time to do a senior thesis, the World Views class focus was changing to she was studying the Middle East and that gave her the opportunity to organize an exhibition in the gallery focused on women artists from the Middle East. “It was grueling,” she says, recalling the project that took an entire summer and fall to pull together. “It was also really wonderful to be engaged in something – to eat, sleep and breathe it – and then to see it come together. To go from seeing the art in slides and books and then seeing everything in place on the walls was incredible.”

Although a number of Willamette faculty, including Roger Hull and James Thompson were influential, she says it was the art department’s administrative assistant, Linda Nelson, who taught her the all-important logistics of exhibitions. “There’s the perceived art world and then there’s the reality of the art world – labeling artwork, getting it into the building, hanging it. Linda knew everything and she helped me with all the technical things. She taught me the logistics of what I do today.”

After graduating from Willamette and earning a master’s degree in arts management from the University of Oregon, Borok applied and won a position as a curatorial assistant at the Portland Art Museum. In 1999, the museum was expanding and needed someone to coordinate all the exhibits. “I was in the right place at the right time. I got to write my own job description.”

Today, Borok is the point person and chief traffic cop for all the art museum’s exhibitions. She negotiates contracts, manages budgets, handles copyright issues, answers questions about upcoming exhibitions and, most importantly, keeps the 20 or so exhibitions that are coming, showing or going running smoothly. “It’s an amazing feeling when a show is finally up. This is my dream job.”

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This story ran in the summer ’05 issue of the Scene magazine with Lisa Borok (formerly Lisa Morgan) listed as Paula Borok. We apologize for the error.

Lopaka Purdy: The Fire Within

For years, Lopaka Purdy pursued the Olympic flame. As a volunteer at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he discovered his own spiritual fire.

Purdy has been obsessed with the Olympic Games since he was a child. “Back in 1992, I remember lying on my grandparents’ bed watching my first Olympic opening ceremony and being completely awed by it,” says the senior French major who is also a competitive swimmer, rower and outrigger canoe paddler. “People from all around the world were having a good time together. When the Olympic archer shot the arrow across the stadium into the cauldron lighting the torch, the stadium erupted in cheers. I knew right then that the Olympics celebrated the best of humanity. My interest in the Olympics has grown ever since.”

Purdy begin reading about the Olympics, including its rich Greek history and some of the political upheavals it has weathered. In 1996, when the Olympic torch was carried through Las Vegas where the Purdy family was living, Purdy was ready. “I was intent on seeing the torch. I got all my friends together for it. Seeing the torch just added to my own Olympic flame.”

During his freshman year at Willamette, the Winter Games were held in Salt Lake City and the Olympic torch was scheduled to come to Salem. Purdy decided the occasion deserved a campus-wide celebration. “I got a bunch of friends together and pitched the idea of a Willamette Olympic Day. We got money from the President's Office and ASWU and got Papa John’s to donate $300 worth of pizza. We had a big raffle with American flags and we held our own mini-Olympics on the quad.”

All the activity served only to inflame Purdy’s desire to attend the Utah Winter Olympics. He was chosen as a volunteer, but he couldn’t afford to take an entire month off from school. Instead, he finagled free housing and used some savings and money he’d received at Christmas to buy a plane ticket to Salt Lake City and to the opening ceremonies. “It was so awesome that I’ll never forget it. I wore white ski pants, a red sweater and blue jacket for the U.S. colors. The trip definitely convinced me I wanted to work someday for the International Olympic Committee [IOC] in Switzerland.”

For his study abroad in his junior year, he selected Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the IOC. “I wanted to intern with the IOC. I sent them this long letter and my resume, but they were restructuring their intern program and didn’t have any openings.”

Undaunted, Purdy sent the Olympic organizers a request to be a volunteer at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. The Committee was interested, but said he’d have to come to Greece to interview in person.

Three months later, a letter arrived saying he’d been selected as a volunteer. He only needed to find summer housing in Athens. It wasn’t an easy task. “I was blown away by how much it cost to rent a place, especially during the Olympics. It was so disheartening. After all of this, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to go to the Olympics.”

He spent hours on the Internet searching for affordable housing. He tried organizing other Olympic volunteers to share housing. He combed websites and posted ads. Just when he was about to give up, two young women from Athens who planned to spend the summer in London, offered to sublet their apartment to him for $100 Euros a week.

Assigned as a press agency assistant for the Associated Press, Purdy was one of the first Olympic volunteers to arrive. “The press center opened a month before the Games began and for the first couple of weeks, we helped them set up all the computers and equipment. When the journalists arrived, we’d collect press briefings from each of the offices and call the chiefs of the different Olympic teams to gather information.”

All the volunteers were able to attend the final dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies. But, for Purdy, watching the actual ceremony on big screen television with his Greek co-workers was even more memorable. “The Greeks had been waiting for a long time for the Olympics to come home. When they sang the Greek national anthem during the opening ceremonies, my co-workers and I grabbed hands. We were all crying and singing together. It was great.”

One of the perks of being a volunteer was that extra tickets were often available. “I got to see rowing, swimming and beach volleyball. I watched swimmer Michael Phelps win his first gold medal.”

He also worked several nights in the VIP section of the Olympic Stadium and met dignitaries and celebrities like the royal family of Sweden, IOC President Jacque Rogge and Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

When he wasn’t working at the Games or watching the competition, Purdy got a taste of everyday life in Greece. “I lived on my own, did my own shopping and paid my own bills, which made me a little more mature. When I’d come home from work, these two old Greek guys in their 80s, Yanni and John, would be sitting in the courtyard talking, eating and drinking beer. They didn’t speak any English, but they’d always insist I join them. John kept finches and was building this big birdcage. He’d show me the progress he’d made on it. We communicated with smiles and nods. It’s one of my best memories.”

Purdy ‘s six-weeks at the Olympic Games ended all too quickly. “I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the closing ceremony and it was the perfect way to end a perfect summer. The theme was Greek culture – Greek food, Greek dancing, Greek singing. I’d learned a little Greek dance and we spent the whole time dancing. Being surrounded by all these new friends watching the closing ceremonies was incredible.”

After such a positive Olympic experience, Purdy would seem destined to work for the International Olympic Committee. But the experience opened him to an even larger world. “The Olympics made me realize how much there is to experience in the world and how many doors I can open,” he says smiling broadly. He’s been accepted to teach English for a year in Japan with the Japan Exchange and Teaching program. “It’s made me want to work abroad and help people on a global level.”

Even more surprising is that his Olympic adventure ignited an inner flame. “I have a personal sense of my own spirituality that I didn’t have before. My friends have noticed that I’m quieter, a little more reflective. My spirituality is not about religion, but about my relationship with God. It’s become an everyday thing that influences everything I do. It’s made me thankful for my life and for all the opportunities I have. Now I know how important it all is, even the little things.”

Anton Chiono: Bridging the Divide

We live in divided times in the United States – red states versus blue states; conservatives versus liberals; environmentalists versus business interests. Junior environmental science major Anton Chiono found out firsthand that the issues facing our nation are complex, but in many cases, we may not be as far apart as we think.

Chiono, a Willamette University Hatfield Scholar who has also just won a Udall scholarship, spent four months this year working in Washington, D.C., as an intern in Republican Senator Gordon Smith’s office. Chiono, a self-described moderate Democrat who has worked for environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy, wanted to work for a congressman who more closely reflected his own political leanings. The only opening was in Smith’s office.

Coming from the tiny eastern Oregon ranching community of Summer Lake, Chiono says conservative political views aren’t unfamiliar to him. “Many of my friends and neighbors are conservative. Going into this internship, I knew that I may not agree with Senator Smith’s office, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to examine another perspective.”

It was tougher than he thought. “The atmosphere was a lot more partisan than I expected,” says Chiono. As an intern, he worked at least nine hours a day on Capitol Hill answering phones, sorting and distributing correspondence to legislative correspondents, chauffeuring the senator to meetings and events, leading Capitol tours for constituents and dignitaries and conducting research at the Library of Congress. “There was a lot of banter and partisan comments in the office about colleagues and pieces of legislation.”

Adjusting to big city life was also more difficult than he expected. “For a boy from Summer Lake [population 85], Washington, D.C., was a bit of an adjustment,” says Chiono in his characteristically understated manner. He learned quickly that the city streets go from green to mean from block to block. “I’d been warned that the quality of the neighborhoods can change drastically. One day, I turned the wrong way, went through an underpass and ended up in a very different sort of neighborhood. I quickly turned around.”

He spent weekends soaking up the sights, including visiting Smithsonian Museum and historical sites. “Washington, D.C., has an amazing atmosphere. You read about this stuff in history books. To be walking down hallways where famous statesmen and women walked and go to the National Archives and see documents like the Constitution was a powerful experience. It left me feeling very patriotic and proud.”

In addition to working long hours in Smith’s office and playing tourist, Chiono spent his time conducting environmental research for an independent study project on fire policy. He found the power of being a Senate staffer streamlined his research. “I knew I could use the Library of Congress, but I didn’t realize the research librarians would be at my beck and call. I asked to be directed to some papers I was looking for and the librarian said, ‘I don’t know if we can have all of these to you by this afternoon. Would it be okay if we sent this one, which is located in Maryland, to you by tomorrow morning?’ It was exciting to have that kind of resource.”

Chiono also used his research skills to build Senator Smith’s case for opening the Biscuit Fire area to salvage logging. It was not something Chiono personally supported. “At first, I felt I was compromising my beliefs and I had to think long and hard about what I was doing. A lot of the science being quoted was politically motivated. But I also took a lot of calls from constituents dependent on the timber industry in southern Oregon. Logging is their livelihood and they’d say ‘we need this sale.’ These were very heartfelt pleas and I realized the Senator is trying to help his constituents.”

His struggle didn’t change his personal political views, but it made him realize that he isn’t as open-minded as he thought. “I’ve spent the last three years in a liberal college atmosphere. I’ve become extremely idealistic in some areas. This experience showed me that I’d become somewhat close-minded. It was good for me to look at both sides of issues and examine the places in myself where I may not be doing that.”

He admits his internship experience has taught him that most issues don’t have easy solutions. “Politics has the potential to affect a great deal of positive change,” says Chiono, who hopes to pursue a master’s degree in forestry and then maybe a degree in environmental law. ”You have to understand both the science and the politics behind issues, especially as they become more politicized. Nothing is black and white. It was an eye opener for me to learn that sometimes you have to compromise. You just have to keep an open mind.”

Patricia “Trish” Price: Spokane Grad Living Fulbright Dream

Patricia “Trish” Price, an honors graduate of Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, is living her dream job as a Fulbright teaching assistant in Vienna, Austria.

Price, the recipient of a coveted 12-month, $15,000 Fulbright grant, is teaching English, economics and religion to Austrian students ages 10 to 18. The Fulbright Teaching Assistant program, allows graduating seniors, graduate students, and developing professionals and artists opportunities for personal enrichment and international experience. These grants, covering up to one year and renewable for one additional year, are awarded through a merit-based competition to men and women who wish to study and research abroad.

Price, a 2004 philosophy/piano performance graduate of Willamette University in Salem, Ore., first became enthralled with Vienna during a study abroad experience. “As an undergraduate at Willamette, I studied in Vienna for a semester. My Viennese piano professor strongly encouraged me to return to Vienna to study through the Fulbright program.”

She’s both teacher and student in Austria. “I teach in the classroom about 10 hours a week and study both German and music. My teaching day ends about noon and I organize the rest of my day around studying and practicing piano.”

For Price, teaching is a joy. “This experience has given me a true taste of what it’s like to be a teacher. I’ve learned a lot about the energy, planning and focus it requires to inspire students. It’s made me appreciate all of the great teachers throughout my education and how they inspired me to accomplish my goals.”

She’s learned that it’s all about the students. “My students are the greatest part of this experience. The younger students are especially sweet because they still think hanging out with a “real” American is a treat. They get extremely excited and clap when I’m invited to their classroom.”

She’s also been surprised at how close she’s gotten to them. “I’ve become emotionally involved with my students and their progress. If they don’t do well, I feel as if I could have done something better. If they succeed, I’m overwhelmed with pride.”

For the music-oriented Price, the cultural opportunities in Vienna are a bonus of her Fulbright experience. She’s fallen in love with Vienna. “I am a pianist and to be in a city like Vienna that’s filled with so much culture is a dream come true.

I live about 10 minutes from central downtown, so I have constant access to the State Opera House, the Konzerhaus [Vienna concert house] and the Muskiverein [concert house that is home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra]. I think that the Viennese have their priorities in order. The government subsidizes so many cultural programs that I can always find something inspiring to do with my time.”

Being an ambassador for America and American culture was an aspect of her Fulbright experience that she didn’t expect. “True cross cultural understanding hasn’t really occurred between Europe and the U.S.,” says Price, who has extended her Fulbright teaching assistant position for an additional year. “I’ve lived extensively on both continents so I can often explain to both Americans and Austrians what each might be thinking. It’s amazing how it’s grounded me in my own personal views. I never realized before how truly American I am.”

Melissa Wheeler: Reaching Across Cultures

She crosses the busy Hong Kong street hugging a plastic sack that contains everything she owns. A bus roars by, whipping the pale blue sari headscarf across her brown face. She eases herself through the wrought iron gate. Her thin arm, angry with thumb-sized purple bruises, reaches up to push the buzzer. An electronic click unlocks the door and she begins a slow climb up the dark, narrow stairs of the women’s shelter.

“Hello, are you Indri?” Melissa Wheeler, says softly. She gently grasps the young woman’s elbow and guides her through the door. “Welcome to Bethune House.”

Indri’s dark, doe-like eyes dart nervously around the small space. The room is dominated by a scarred wooden dining table and seven mis-matched chairs. A black fabric couch and two plaid overstuffed chairs slump along one wall next to a spindly end table and a lamp with a shade that’s too big. On the hearth above an unused fireplace rests a brightly painted statue of the Virgin Mary. The white walls, framed in bright lavender trim, have recently been painted and the paint smell mixes with the aroma of garlic, onions and ginger emanating from a closet-sized kitchen.

“You can put your belongings over here,” Wheeler says, stepping into a narrow sleeping room and pointing to a green iron bunk. Colorful blankets and bedspreads cover thin mattresses of the eight bunks that crowd the room. Another four bunks fill a converted porch next door. Although there are beds for 24, the shelter often houses 30 or more women, many sleeping on pallets or couches. Cheap suitcases, cardboard boxes and plastic sacks like the one Indri carries are piled on top or crammed under the beds. A row of battered lockers leans precariously against the far wall.

Another Indonesian woman, Siti, who has been at the shelter for three weeks, looks up from her needlework project and beams at Indri. “Welcome, little sister,” she says, her rich Indonesian accent lilting her words. When the woman says something in their native Bahasa, Indri laughs and visibly relaxes. Wheeler leaves her young charge to settle in.

“So many families and recruitment agencies take advantage of these women,” explains Wheeler, who is starting her second month as part of the United Methodist Church Global Justice Volunteers’ Program that sends 18- to 25-year-olds to work for two to three months in various social justice organizations across the globe. Three days a week, Wheeler works here at Bethune House women’s shelter; the other three days, she works for Mission for Filipina Migrant Workers, a legal clinic that offers help to abused workers. “These women come to Hong Kong from countries like the Philippines and Indonesia to work as maids, cooks and nannies and send money to their families back home. They often support whole families, including their elderly parents.”

In an effort to bring more money into the Philippines, the country’s government operates a program that sends Filipino workers to 180 countries. The women, many of whom are college educated, come because they can earn more money as domestic workers in Hong Kong than they can as nurses, secretaries or teachers at home. Ranging in age from 20 to 40, many are wives and mothers who must leave behind their husbands and children. “In Hong Kong alone, there are about 123,000 Filipino people working, most of them women. We have about 85,000 Indonesian migrant workers.”

Recruitment agencies that arrange for foreign domestic worker transportation and placement require the women to sign iron-clad employment contracts and insist they live in the employers’ homes where there is little oversight. It’s a situation ripe for abuse. Laws regarding minimum wage, days off and other conditions are routinely ignored. “The most common complaint we get is underpayment. No one tells the women what the minimum wage is, so they often don’t know they’re being underpaid. The recruitment agencies tell them they have to work seven days a week or they’ll lose their jobs. They’re treated like slaves.”

Sometimes the abuse becomes physical like it did for Indri, whose employer didn’t think she worked hard enough so he beat her. Siti was also physically abused. “Siti was allowed to sleep only four hours a night,” says Wheeler. “She had to work such long hours that she fell asleep while she was ironing a shirt and damaged it. Her employer branded her with the iron.”

Laughter erupts from the tiny kitchen. Four women – two residents and two staff members – are crowded into the tiny space. Despite no oven and only a two-burner stove, they cook three meals a day for the shelter’s residents and staff.

Women filter into the common room and occupy chairs around the dining room table or perch on couches. Some wear traditional saris or head coverings. Others wear Western dresses or slacks and blouses. Most of them are young, in their 20’s and 30’s. Two women pass dishes and silverware. Others pass a platter of spicy beef skewers and bowls of fried rice and gado gado, an Indonesian salad of white cabbage, green beans, sprouts and eggs. As the women eat, the chatter around the table is good-natured, the laughter easy. English, Indonesian and Filipino words tumble over one another, often in the same sentence. Sharing the bond of oppression, women at Bethune make friends quickly and easily.

“Willamette University taught me tolerance that gives me empathy for what these women go through,” says Wheeler, as she helps clear the table. She graduated from Willamette in May 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. “My anthropology training gave me observation skills and exposed me to ideas and cultures different from my own.”

Studying in Quito, Ecuador, during her junior year has helped Wheeler adjust to living in Hong Kong, not an easy task for someone who grew up in the tiny Eastern Oregon town of Baker City. The two-room apartment a few blocks away that she shares with Billie, another Bethune volunteer, has no kitchen and the bathroom consists of a squat pot style toilet, a sink and a hose that comes out of the wall. “Hong Kong is noisy and there’s traffic all the time. There are lights on all night so it’s never dark. When I first came to Hong Kong, I was disappointed, but I’ve actually come to like it.”

After lunch, Wheeler gathers a group of 10 women around the large table for an English lesson. She asks each of them to write a description in English of their boyfriend or husband. The assignment generates much giggling. Suparti, at 32, one of the older women, tries to read aloud the description she’s written of her husband. Halfway through, she chokes up and cannot finish. She left behind her husband and her young daughter in Indonesia. She has missed them so much that she risked the wrath of her employer and the recruitment agency by breaking her employment contract. She’s owed back wages, but she’s foregoing a legal battle. She just wants to go home, but she must wait here at Bethune until her paperwork clears.

The legal work is some of the most frustrating for Wheeler. On the days she works at Mission for Filipina Migrant Workers, she travels to a modest office housed in an Anglican church. There she helps women who have civil or criminal claims against their employers file paperwork, write statements or try to calculate how much money they are owed. Today, she’s sitting in a courtroom with Indarti, an Indonesian woman who was regularly raped by her employer. “The wife would go off to work and the husband, who is a member of the Hong Kong Police Department, would return every morning and rape her,” says Wheeler, who holds Indarti’s slim brown hand. Sitting against the hard wooden bench in the massive British-style courtroom, Indarti looks tiny and vulnerable. It was months before her employer gave her a day off to rest. That was when she met other domestic workers who told her about Bethune House and the migrant worker legal clinic. The Indonesian woman, who is Muslim, was a virgin when she arrived in Hong Kong. “When she goes back to her country and tries to get married, she’ll face all these cultural barriers because she’s not a virgin. That’s on top of all the physical and psychological trauma she’s already faced.”

Once a worker files a civil or criminal case, they fall into legal limbo – they are unable to work or leave the country until the case is settled. For many, Bethune House and the handful of similar shelters is their only hope.

“It’s frustrating because so much is stacked against these women,” says Wheeler. “Their home governments don’t want workers to protest their working conditions. They just want them to keep sending money back home. The Hong Kong government doesn’t want them to rock the boat. The recruitment agencies and families are willing to mistreat them. When they bring a case against their employers, everyone wants them to settle quickly and go away.”

Wheeler knows it’s unlikely these women will be treated fairly in court or at labor tribunals. Sometimes her presence makes a difference. “It’s sad, but because I’m white, the women have more clout if I’m there with them. It makes me uncomfortable, but it comes down to race. It frustrates me that these women are so disrespected.”

Soon Wheeler will board a plane for her hometown of Baker City where she hopes to teach social studies. Indri, Suparti, Indarti and the other women she’s touched have forever altered Wheeler’s view of the world. “I used to think of Asia as one big place, but it’s made up of all these different countries, each with its own language and culture. Being here has also made me look differently at the foreign policies of my own country and of big multinational corporations.”

It’s also made her want to bring a new perspective to her tiny corner of Oregon. “When I become a teacher, I want to help young people learn more about what’s really going on in the world. I want to inspire them to get involved.”

Wheeler, a 2004 Willamette University graduate, has returned from Hong Kong and is teaching in Baker City, Ore.

Natalia Shevchenko: Making Connections

Natalia Shevchenko wants to make the world a smaller, more connected place. As director of Willamette’s Language Learning Center, Shevchenko is the inspiration behind two global projects – Willamette World News, an online newspaper that brings the world to Willamette and Willamette Abroad, online weblogs or “blogs” written by study-abroad students who bring Willamette to the world.

“A little more than two years ago, we started Willamette World News,” says Shevchenko. She’s sitting in the basement of Smullin Hall surrounded by dozens of computers in the Language Learning Center (LLC) lab. “Every year, Willamette has all these wonderful foreign students from all over the world and we thought Willamette World News would create the perfect opportunity for them to express their opinions and ideas and share with Willamette and the world at large news about what’s happening in their home countries.”

At the beginning of the school year, the foreign student correspondents, many of whom work as university teaching assistants, write personal profiles to introduce themselves to the Willamette community. Then, every two weeks, each correspondent researches newspapers and magazines for important issues impacting their countries. They write a short summary/editorial about each article and provide links to the articles.

The editorials and articles provide interesting insights into foreign countries and cultures. A recent sampling from Willamette World News included, among others, an article on British stamps honoring the upcoming wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Camilla Parker Bowles; one on Mexico’s famous shaman, Maria Sabina; an article on French President Jacques Chirac defying President George Bush’s China arms policy; and a story on Bulgaria’s March 1 holiday that features martenitsas, tassels of red and white woven threads said to ward off evil or symbolize the coming of spring. The website currently has correspondents from Bulgaria, Germany, Ukraine, Mexico, Britian, the Netherlands and France.

Moragne Bellanger, a teaching assistant from France, says her contributions to the online newspaper help her stay connected with her home country. “I like to keep an eye on what’s going on in my country and Willamette World News serves as a link for me between home and here. It also helps me when I feel homesick because it makes me feel closer to home.”

One of the goals of the online news source is to help students, faculty and staff at Willamette break out of the infamous “Willamette bubble” that insulates the campus from the rest of the world. “The U.S. is isolated and the Northwest is far away from things,” says Shevchenko, who herself first came as a student to the U.S. from her native Russia. “Americans really don’t know much about the world. We want to make Willamette students and the rest of the community more aware about the world.”

None of the correspondents are paid to contribute to Willamette World News. Anna Pinto, a student from India, has been posting on the site for several months. “I enjoy informing people about what’s happening in my country,” she says. “I want to give people a broader perspective.”

An improvement Shevchenko hopes to make in the near future is an interactive discussion board that would allow readers to comment about the articles they read. “The contributors and I get lots of emails from readers saying they read this article or that, but we’d like to have a single space where we could create a dialog. Our goal is to keep the discussion going and see how the community develops around it.

While Willamette World News brings the world to our doorstep, the Willamette Abroad blog project brings Willamette to the world. Blogs (also called weblogs) are online interactive journals that allow others to read and comment. Every Willamette student who studies abroad is given a blog account and instructions on how to post comments and photos on his or her personal blog. The Willamette Abroad blog project, now in its second semester, is proving tremendously popular with students.

I’m back in Viña for the start of a new semester. Wow. It is so much different than the first time around!! I think back to July when I came and everything was new and scary and I had no clue what I was doing and was afraid to shut the colectivo doors hard, hahha, and now everything is just how it is, normal, what I expect. – Blog entry by Torey Jovick, Chile

The blogs help Willamette students stay connected with the University. Stacy West, a junior rhetoric and media studies major, who lived and studied last fall in Quito, Ecuador, was a regular blogger. “I used my blog almost every week to report things that were fun or important that I wanted to share with my friends and family,” she says.

Cali King, a sophomore who is currently in Galway, Ireland, also finds blogging an easy way to stay connected. “My blog is not only my personal journal, but a way to share my stories and adventures with my family and friends back home,” she writes in an email interview. “It is a simple way to keep my thoughts and helps limit the mass emails I felt I had to send out to everyone. Since communication by phone is difficult, it also keeps my expenses down.”

After a short night, the bustling of our fellow hostelees was not a welcomed noise. Breakfast was short, but complimentary, merely toast and tea to start the day. Having not nearly enough caffeine in our bodies, Seth (Sara Beth) and I took to the streets with the 15 minutes we had before we had to meet everybody in the lobby. It was a beautiful morning, absolutely stunning. The sun was shining brilliantly over the building roofs and the air was crisp and fresh. We soon found that there was nothing open. We passed a breakfast place… I stuck my head in and the guy said, “Sorry we’re not open.” I responded, “Is there anywhere around here to get coffee?” He dropped what he was doing. “Coffee,” he said. “Oh, I’ll make ya a cup of coffee.” He made us both lattés. I pulled out my wallet to pay and he shook us away. “It’s on me.” – Blog entry by Cali King, Chile

When she returned to campus, West found that her blog entries helped her translate her experiences. “When I came back from Ecuador, people would ask, ‘How was it?’ My mind would run with so many stories, experiences and adventures that I didn’t know what to say. People who’d read my blog would ask real questions that led to real conversations about my experiences in Ecuador.”

I am learning a lot of Spanish because I am forced to speak it all the time. I spend a lot of time talking to my host mom about Spanish culture. I have not had any problems understanding anyone, just problems trying to express my ideas correctly. I am sure it will get easier as time goes on. – Blog entry, Sarah Anderson, Spain

Not every country is technologically advanced enough for students to take advantage of blogging. Eric Swinn, who is studying in the Ukraine, is an avid chronicler of his study abroad experience. However, internet access in the Ukraine is not readily available and connections are slow. Swinn writes his entries and pastes them into an email to his girlfriend at Willamette. She, in turn, posts his messages on his blog.

I am in Simferopol, Ukraine right now, and it’s pretty wonderful. Let me tell you a little about it. The weather is a lot like I bet it is in Oregon right now. It’s sunny, with occasional rain, and the trees are all green, there are fruit stands lining the street, with fresh watermelons, onions, cucumbers, peppers, etc., which everyone buys daily and uses to make salad at dinner.

I live in a typical, but nice, apartment complex behind the Gostinitsa Mosckva, or ‘Hotel Moscow,’ where my host mother works, and I believe where President Nixon stayed when visiting this area, or so is the talk around town. My apartment is about a 15-20 minute walk from my university this semester, and will be about a 15 minute marshrutka, or a sort of mini-bus, ride from my school next semester. The walk to the university is nice, and makes it way through the university park, which has received a beautiful new gate and pathway this year. – Eric Swinn, Ukraine

Shevchenko says reading the blogs, which are linked on the Office of International Education’s website, is a great way for students interested in study abroad to get a taste of international life. “The blogs are an amazing resource for students considering studying abroad,” she says. “They’re also a wonderful way for prospective students to learn about Willamette’s international programs.”

Students are free to write anything they’d like in their blogs. Some of the entries are about day-to-day happenings; others are more reflective and philosophical. All of them are uncensored and unedited by the university. “They need to be aware that everyone – from the University president to their parents and possibly even future employers – can read what they write,” says Shevchenko. “Our job is to just create the space and see what comes out of it.”

Blogging also has a dark side. A few of the archived blog entries have been hacked by spammers and are filled with automated ads for everything from pornography to cheap mortgages. The Language Learning Center is addressing the problem with new software that has stronger spam filters. Student bloggers can also clean off spam entries or, if spam becomes too great a problem, turn off the comment feature all together.

Shevchenko insists that Willamette World News and Willamette Abroad are just the beginning. “Technology has made this exciting experiment possible.” In the future, she’d like to see professors incorporate the technology into their courses. She also envisions contributions from correspondents from campuses around the world sharing their viewpoint and experiences with Willamette and the Willamette community reflecting our own unique perspectives back to them. “These are links to the world. Anything is possible.”